I'm way, way too sleepy to pretend that i can give you any advice on
your actual problem, but i CAN give you advice on your AS form.
Please dude, for the sake of your brain cells, start using strict typing
and local variables, and when you can, lose the myMethod =
function(param) syntax.
Semantically it makes sense in the myObject.myMethod = function setting,
but putting it everywhere makes your code unreadable at a glance.
function myMethod(param){
}
Spotting the "function" at the beginning of the line hints your neurons
at the code structure. This is how our brains work, one percept triggers
a perception. You need to work with it to make it work less.
In the same way, spotting "myObject" ahead of "myFunction" tells us what
scope we're dealing with. With no scope, where are we? Until we read the
"= function" we might as well expect
myMethod = 2 or myMethod = new Donkey();
Methods/Functions should be as generic as can be, Not necessarily in
function, but in form.. Again, for the sake of your mental health.
In this situation, you want a function that takes a horse and places it
in its little horse-car so it can drive off to the races and win.
However, if the car is already operated by another horse, create a new
car and put the horse in that instead. True to life.
functun putHorseInCar(horse){
if(!myCar.occupied){
myCar.driver = horse;
}else{
newCar = new Car();
newCar.driver = horse;
}
}
Immediatly you're in a heap of dung, since this function is written to
only incorporate one specific car, and you'll need multiple functions
like it to match all TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND cars in the world! BAD!
Of course, you'd write a more generic function that takes more arguments
and perhaps, with the luxury of forethought, you make it return a
reference to the car that has been treated, because perhaps sometime you'd
like some feedback instead of just blindly trusting that the function
does as you hope.
function putHorseInCar(horse:Horse,car:Car):Car{
var someCar:Car = car;
if(!someCar.occupied){
someCar.driver = horse;
}else{
someCar= new Car();
someCar.driver = horse;
}
return someCar;
}
I'm not saying you don't do this. I'm just reminding you and anyone else
not feeling like kicking me in the balls yet that this kind of generic
approach where a function may suddenly become useful in a setting for
which it wasn't originally designed, simply because you wrote it with
forethought and the wisdom of the ages, this kind of approach will SAVE
YOUR ASS time and time again. Why? Because when you're 80, you'll rue
the day you wilfully hurt your now-stagnating braincells.
A function is a guy you ask a favor. "Hey you, guy, i don't know what
your job is, i don't know what you prefer to do, but would you mind
photocopying this paperwork for me?". In "guy"'s world, the exact nature
of the paperwork doesnt matter. It doesnt matter what you plan to do
with it, and he shouldnt need to know; he needs to know how to use a
photocopier of course but the nature of the paperwork shouldn't matter
to him. In his world, the time where the papers enter his life until the
time when they leave it, the papers lose all meaning. If he is unable to
do as you ask because he didnt know that your paperwork required that he
fold it into happy little origami birds and stomp on them repeatedly
before xeroxing them, his life is miserable, and you probably won't get
what you wanted from him.
Functions are innocent bystanders, not coworkers.
Speaking of innocent bystanders, don't send stray bullets flying all
over the map.
selectLayoutNum = function(){
//check if it was the last layout
//set layoutNum
layoutNum = random(5) +1;
while(layoutNum == oldNum){
layoutNum = random(5) +1;
}
oldNum = layoutNum;
trace("layoutNum: " + layoutNum);
getSetsNLayout(layoutNum);
}
layoutNum! PIEAOWW *Ducks behind the counter*
oldNum! P'CHINNGGGggg *throws himself into the gutter*
These are near death experiences i could have AVOIDED had you only aimed
them correctly and put "var" in front of them!
Variables, especially in functions, aren't fire and forget. They lie in
wait like wolves, the smell of blood in their nostrils. And then!
Whammy. I'm willing to bet you've had bugs because of this in the past,
and the sooner you get down with the var-ness, the better.
Anyway i'm just sleepy so don't think i'm trying to tell you off. I'm
just pointing out shit that really killed my head back around flash 5 up
til late MX, and
i feel your pain.
Cheers,
- Andreas
Corban Baxter wrote:
Well it's kind of working. I'd love to have some help on this to get me
going correctly. So with that said I'll try and explain what this is.
Ok so we are creating a screensaver that has 5 img layouts/templates
with different numbers of images per layout but they have empty MC's in
place to place the images later.
For each template we have created sets of images to choose from that
will be placed in each template. These images have linkage id's in the
lib.
What we want to do is select a random "LAYOUT" (template). Then select
images for each position in the layout/template at random from a set of
images designed for each template. So with that said it's a mouth full.
What I thought I could do is generate all this random stuff and create
an array from it that stores my images to be used. Then I need to
generate a list of MC's to place these images into. Which is more or
less determined in each template but each template has a different # of
images in it.
NEXT issue is this. Once I have both array's one of "linkage id's" for
the template and another array that holds my "MC references". I want to
load these images into the corresponding MC but in another random order.
(I know I know but we don't ever want ANYTHING to look the same twice).
So what I will have to do is then figure out a decent way to get the
loading to work without killing myself.
Now my new problem is flash is telling me my function "createMCrfcs " is
some sorta infinite loop and can't finish the task. Which makes no sense
cause I am more or less doing the same thing above. But what ever. I
hope this makes sense and someone can throw some insight to me after
typing all this! Thanks for listening boys!
I'm going crazy and this might sound crazy but any help would be GREATLY
appericated!!!!
//setup vars
clipNum = 1;
selectLayoutNum = function(){
//check if it was the last layout
//set layoutNum
layoutNum = random(5) +1;
while(layoutNum == oldNum){
layoutNum = random(5) +1;
}
oldNum = layoutNum;
trace("layoutNum: " + layoutNum);
getSetsNLayout(layoutNum);
}
getSetsNLayout = function(layoutNum){
setsArray = [null, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4];
totalSetsNLayout = setsArray[layoutNum];
trace("totalSetsNLayout: " + totalSetsNLayout);
gatherImages4Layout(totalSetsNLayout, layoutNum);
}
gatherImages4Layout = function(totalSetsNLayout, layoutNum){
totalImagesNLayout = [null, 9, 8, 6, 6, 11];
imagesToGrab = totalImagesNLayout[layoutNum];
trace("imagesToGrab: " + imagesToGrab);
//dynamicly create array of images to be used in layout
imgArray = new Array();
for(i=0; i<=imagesToGrab; i++){
randomSet = random(totalSetsNLayout) + 1;
while(randomSet == oldSet){
randomSet = random(totalSetsNLayout) + 1;
}
oldSet = randomSet;
img = "layout" + layoutNum + "_set" + randomSet + "_img"
+ i;
imgArray.push(img);
}
trace("imgArray= [" + imgArray + "]");
gotoAndPlay("lay_" + layoutNum);
createMCrfcs(layoutNum, totalImagesNLayout);
}
createMCrfcs = function(layoutNum, totalImagesNLayout){
trace("totalSetsNLayout: " + totalSetsNLayout);
//create clip array...
rfcsArray = new Array();
for(p=0; p<=totalImagesNLayout; p++){
myMC = "lay" + layoutNum + "_img" + p;
rfcsArray.push(myMC);
}
trace("rfcsArray = [" + rfcsArray + "]");
}
selectLayoutNum();
stop();
//cb
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